Avett Brothers Giveaway & Interview
Alice Williams
The North Carolina based Avett Brothers have been hailed as creators of ‘punkgrass’, had back to back sellout shows across America, and are now heading our way to play at this year’s Blues and Roots festival as well as gracing a few shows in Sydney and Melbourne which are sure to sell out pretty quickly.
Their last album ‘Emotionalism’ was the last my ex gave me before we broke up. So though I played ‘I would be sad’ so many times the CD now baulks and refuses to indulge me anymore and although I sent many, too many break up emails quoting the song in it’s entirety and the album at length, I was still pretty excited to get the chance to talk to oldest Avett brother Scott about the release of ’I and Love and You’ and upcoming visit to our shores.
A – Hey Scott!
S – Hey, you know my aunt’s name is Alice…
A – No way, I hope she’s a nice one…
S – Yeah ..haha…yes she is.
A – Cool, I’m very excited to interview you, I’m such a fan. I only heard about you guys last year, my ex gave me your album Emotialism and then we broke up about a week later…
S – Hahaha oh man…
A – So I guess my first question is, do you as a song writer feel responsible for your lyrics in regard to how people take them and also how the people you write them about feel?
S – That’s funny - well I guess it depends on how it’s received…in this case no, not at all! Hahaha – if it’s something good sure, but if it’s something bad then I have no responsibility at all! You know, you just put the words and the music out there and they aren’t your words or my words – we just throw em out there and a lot of times people see things in them that we didn’t even mean so…
A – Yeah sure – I mean, the album is pretty great – and I just listened to your new offerings ‘I and Love and You’ which comes out here on the 19th – it’s really awesome…how in the world did you guys get Rick Rubin to produce!?
S – Crazy huh! It was very surreal and very exciting and then when we met him and got to go to his house he was just like one of the guys I mean, he coulda been my neighbour growing up. Just a country guy – really welcoming and generous and calm which made the crazy thing about working with him a lot easier. He’s just a real nice normal guy.
A – Oh yeah, a real nice normal guy just with pictures of Johnny Cash and him all over his walls…just one of the guys.
S – Hahaha yeah that was crazy, and then he allowed us to record on one of the Johnny Cash songs which was just over the top crazy.
A – Yikes, so are you looking forward to Blues and Roots here in Australia next month?
S – Oh, the uh, festival?
A – Yeah, you guys got billed above Old Crow Medicine Show…nice work.
S – Hahaha what does that mean?
A -I think it means you’re awesome.
S -Oh well good! Haha that’s pretty cool – It’s our first time there so we can’t wait to just get there and tear it up. We’ll come with our sleeves rolled up and all ready to go…
A -So you’re a pretty well established painter too, with your own gallery and what not, how do you find the time to fit that in with all the music stuff?
S – Ah well, this time of year when we’re all home is pretty quiet so I’ve learnt how to work it in with the studio. But also I’ve gotten better at saying, “alright, no hurry. I’ll work on that when we don’t have any shows” and you know, just go slow on it. So I’ve been building a fair bit of work up in my studio to show. Because people don’t pay so much attention to time in the art world I can just show it all and it looks like I’ve been doing heaps but it actually took, you know, ages haha. But yeah I painted a bit this morning and I’ll do some more all next week then pack it all up and go on tour.
A -Sounds like a pretty nice existence. So do you think about or write music while you paint?
S -No, no chance. I might listen to something like Neurosis or some spacious metal or something – that can help me sometimes but I can’t listen to anything that’s gonna engage me lyrically. Maybe classical. Lyrics are too much of a distraction and I have to keep it separate, I really do. I love painting, I think it’ll be something that’s always with me.
A -But music always seems to have been a pretty dominant part of your life?
S -Oh yeah of course, I only started painting in collage but music has always been there. Its a huge part of my family life too. We’ve, my brother and I, have always played in bands and yeah it’s very important to my family.
A -Do you have a first memory of music?
S -Umm, well… my grandmother used to play for us a lot. And when we were little my parents used to have this 8 track player and maybe six or seven 8 tracks that were so great and I just had the best time putting them in the player and they were so warped and awful but I had great fun with ‘em.
A -So, you have your own Wikipedia page, how does that feel?
S -It’s ridiculous! Totally ridiculous and they have the worst photo on there ever…
A -Haha yeah and they describe you as ‘The older one with the beard”…you need to sort them out, dude!
S -The older one with the beard! No way! I should shave my face and then everyone will think Seth is older. Older one with the beard…
A -You guys have a sister too, is she musically inclined also?
S -We do, yeah and she is. She’s very talented, she’s a great singer. She’s also a very talented dancer.
A -Your folks must be pretty proud…
S -Yeah but they’d be proud no matter what we did. We grew up out here in the country where there were very few distractions so there was a lot of entertaining ourselves and it was a great way to grow up.
I wrap things up before I start mimicking his obscenely attractive and sincere southern accent (mah parent’s used’ta…) and happily spend the day listening to ‘I and Love and You’ and thanking my lucky stars – not for the first time – that while I may have awful taste in men, they usually have great taste in music.
THE AVETT BROTHERS ON TOUR:
Friday 2 April Byron Bay Bluesfest
Saturday 3 April Byron Bay Bluesfest
Monday 5 April Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW
*tix via www.factorytheatre.com.au or www.Ticketek.com.au
Tuesday 6 April Prince Bandroom, Melbourne VIC
* www.Princebandroom.com.au or www.Ticketek.com.au
http://www.theavettbrothers.com
http://www.myspace.com/theavettbrothers
- I AND LOVE AND YOU by THE AVETT BROTHERS is out now! -
